


The Faceless Martyr

by Ezekyle2517



Category: Warhammer 40.000, Warhammer 40k (Novels) - Various Authors
Genre: Gen, Night Lords, Terror Raid, underhive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:07:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25260601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ezekyle2517/pseuds/Ezekyle2517
Summary: Short, mainly descriptive piece of a Night Lord terror raid.
Kudos: 5





	The Faceless Martyr

Voshak Sal crouched upon a low hab building, a motionless gargoyle clad in midnight against the drab grey. This terror raid had been orchestrated in the underhive of Malioch Scotaris, low enough to prowl unnoticed but not yet deep enough for the shackles of civilisation to completely crumble away. The enveloping darkness, choking fumes and suffocating heat of this city’s underbelly reminded him of another world from his past. From so long ago the memory seemed to belong in a dream from another lifetime...

A commotion below rudely tore Voshak from his strained recollection. He cast his eyes back to his prey as it stumbled beneath him along enclosed alleys and tight alcoves, its almost harshly white garments causing it to stand apart from the dingy reality that it traversed. Its path was uninhibited, curfew having cleared the streets of all but the most opportunist sinners of the night, and yet he stumbled his way along drunk on the terror that washed over him, eyes wild with desperation. Voshak had done well so far.

The gargoyle reanimated with a whine of strained servos, dashing across the rooftops and leaping to adjoining structures with unnatural speed and agility. Voshak closed the distance between himself and the target with ease, his eyesight cutting through even the darkest of shadows granting the figure below no respite from his relentless pursuit. His full plate fractured rockcrete roofing and raked steel supports but the hab district that formed his hunting grounds neighboured a sprawling manufactorium sector, its relentless noise almost entirely cloaking his every crashing footfall. Almost. The effect of what little noise escaped unmasked was evident in the mortal. Its head swivelled frantically, eyes darting with heightening hysteria to the blackness above, often causing it to lose footing in a vain attempt to glimpse its spectral hunter. The fear that it cast was almost tangible.

His victim continued its charge through empty streets like a startled stock animal separated from its herd. With increasing panic its path became so erratic that it quickly found itself at the end of a narrow passageway with no exit, staring into cold masonry. Its body shook at the impact of Voshak hitting the pavement behind it but its eyes remained fixed forward, only a quiet string of prayers escaping its lips. Both knew that none would intervene.

"Your corpse god cannot deliver you," Voshak stated pointedly, his already deep voice grating through his helmet’s vox emitter. "Although you may take solace knowing that your end will serve a... higher purpose" he trailed off into a sadistic chuckle, inducing further shivers from the mortal as it emerged as a harsh scraping.

Still trembling the Ministorum adept turned slowly, grimacing the whole while as if his body followed the will of another, until he finally laid eyes upon the grizzly warrior that stood before him. Its size was almost incomprehensible and further exaggerated in this cramped environment. The colour of the armour appeared to have been a dark blue although this was difficult to tell as the majority of plates had been swathed in sheets of ragged human hide and the rest glazed with a deep red tint. The warrior wielded an enlarged fist with blades a foot long protruding from its digits, their energy fields growling as if fervently anticipating further bloodshed. As his gaze rose it fell at last upon the face of death itself. A helmet moulded to resemble a twisted human skull with razor fangs flanked by chiropteran wings all within which sharp slivers of ruby burned eagerly.

This was Voshak’s favourite part. He breathed in the subtle scent of sweat mingling with the sharp tang of expelled urine. Every mortal had their own fear scent and this ones was pungent. He gazed on, taking in every mote of fear the priest displayed: his trembling lip, his knocking knees, the white of his knuckles clasped in a death grip around his golden pendant hanging from his neck. Voshak allowed himself one last toothy grin behind his executioners mask.

A pair of Arbites found the priest the next day cycle. He rested 2 feet off the ground, cables running down the adjacent the buildings having been ripped free to bind his legs and forearms, and hold him in a mocking crucifix. The man’s robes along with his skin had been almost entirely removed. From the damage caused to his exposed muscle by the taut binding cables the Arbites had deemed that the man had still been alive at the time. The vestment lay, now a deep shade of red, discarded below him in a dark sea of effusion, however his skin had yet to be recovered. His badge of office had then been replaced carefully and now hung carefully beneath his skinless face, framing 2 shockingly white eyeballs with no lids to block out the harrowing torment that must have occurred. To complete the scene the perpetrator had left one final message. On the wall at the rear of the alley, behind the figure who’s fate it had so cruelly sealed, was a line of text written in the dark, dried vitae of the man of faith. "The Emperor Protects" was illuminated by the harsh white glow of a portable strip lumen, punctuated by an Aquila given form by 2 incredibly large handprints. The true symbolism of the scene was lost on no one present.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first time writing any kind of fiction. Just read Guy Haley's "Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter" and was inspired enough to bash this out (to anyone else who's read it I'm sure there are similarities).


End file.
